Outpost by Ann Aguirre Read Free Book Online Page A

didn’t speak; they shared a core of deep-seated animosity, but they both seemed determined to fight at my side this summer. Deep down, I understood I could only have one partner. Part of me didn’t wholly understand that. Why couldn’t I be friends with both? They each brought something different to the table, and their combat styles weren’t the same.
    This isn’t about fighting , a little voice said. But, unfortunately, it went away as fast as it came, and left me feeling foolish.
    We found Longshot playing cards in the barracks; he had his sleeves rolled up, exposing weathered forearms. Even now I found his age marvelous and astonishing. With good food and fresh air, I might live that long too, provided the Freaks didn’t get me. Which made my forthcoming request even less comprehensible when you got right down to it, but I had been reared to protect others. I felt less than whole if I wasn’t living up to my own inner expectations. You could take the Huntress out of the enclave, but it didn’t lessen her need to fight.
    “Kids,” he said with an inclination of his head.
    That was what they called brats in Salvation. It was also the name for the offspring of the animals they kept for milk. That seemed more offensive to me than the word “brat,” but evidently not according to Topside sensibilities. They also didn’t like it when I called people Breeders, even when they had young.
    I picked up Longshot’s cue. “I heard you need a team.”
    Two bushy white brows went up; he played his role well, as if I hadn’t forewarned him two weeks ago. “Is that right?”
    “They’ll be planting soon,” Stalker said. “And you’ll need people to protect the growers.”
    “And then later, the fields,” I added.
    Longshot tilted his head. “I’m aware of that.”
    “We want to be on your team,” Fade clarified.
    “All three of you?” The older man feigned skepticism as his gaze brushed over me in my long, full skirt. “Can you shoot?”
    I shook my head. “But there are no walls out in the fields anyway. You’d have an advantage if you chose people experienced in hand-to-hand.”
    “And that’s you?” His tone grew quietly amused.
    That might’ve bothered me if I hadn’t grasped his intent. Longshot couldn’t afford to seem too willing at first, and I knew how I looked in this dress and Momma Oaks’s braids, my Huntress scars hidden from the world. My gaze swept the barracks, where a number of guards watched us with equal measures of hilarity and impatience. Talk would only take things so far.
    At random, I pointed at a young man who looked capable. “I’ll prove it to you. Let’s step outside. If I can’t bring him down, I’ll forget this whole idea.”
    There was a reason I was fighting for the honor of our group. The guards saw me as the weak link. While they’d consider letting Stalker and Fade join the summer patrol, I had to establish my skill before they’d take me seriously.
    The guard I’d singled out gave an incredulous laugh. “I don’t wrestle girls.”
    “That’s not what I heard, Frank!” someone cracked.
    A hot flush flared in his cheeks. “Shut up , Dooley.”
    Longshot shoved back from the card table. “I don’t see what it’d hurt, as long as you promise to abide by the terms.”
    There was no way this guard had trained as I had or earned the same combat experience. Down below, Hunters blindfolded us and taught us to fight according to what we could sense with our ears and noses. Eventually I got good enough to detect an incoming strike by the movements around me. So I could beat him easily.
    Keen to show them what I could do, I turned my back to Stalker, who knew what I wanted. He unfastened the top two buttons on my dress, which I hauled over my head. The men in the barracks gasped, except for Stalker and Fade, who both realized I was always ready to fight beneath the feminine paraphernalia that Momma Oaks foisted on me. With knives strapped to my thighs, I was